I3E-^OXEr) E^SlCL.TJSI^v^EL'S' TO BEES J^ISTJD liOnSTB^^ 



Vol. III. 



DECEMBER 1, 1875. 



No. XII. 



FRIEND ANNA'S QDEENS AND 

 QUEEN CELLS. 



E'' IIAVfc} noticed thiit ijuecn cells are often both en- 

 larfjed and lenfrthened after beinjc sealed over. 

 I Soniethinji: yon said a while since made me deter- 

 mine to sjieak to you of it, but I liave always Ibvgottca 

 it in writina:. 



1 liave twice had icorkcr bees hatched ont of Queen 

 cells that were cageil, which may happen often. Mhen 

 colonies are so long about .netting a Queen. In the 

 last case some food was reraiiining in the cell, so that 

 a deficiency of food had nothing to do with it. Per- 

 jiaps you have notice<l that l)ees often seem busy doing 

 sujHfi/i/nf/ to a capped cpII. mayha]) murmuring some 

 charm over it the while. May not this proceeding ex- 

 ert some influence over the inmate ? 



Last spring I had a colony swarm out under the 

 following circumstances: I removed their C^ueen and 

 gave them a capped cell ; some time after, I found them 

 swarming. While they still Idled the air, I examined 

 the hive to see if there was a cell which I had over- 

 looked. I found only tlie one cell, which had not 

 hatched, and as it was iiast the time, I cut it oi)en and 

 found within, the tiniest specimen of a bee imagina- 

 ble, but dead. The cell was astonishingly large, the 

 wails of it at least .'4 ol an incli thick. Why did they 

 immure her so strangely? Do you suppose they di- 

 vined that she was not a jjroiiev C^hieen, or became 

 imijatient at her long tarrying within and determined 

 that she should not emerge at all ? 



I was just about to prepare a table similar to one 

 that came out recently in Glean in'gs, about the 

 length of time requisite to hatch Queens, etc., but the 

 longest and shortest time mentioned accorded exact- 

 ly with my own, so mine was not needed. I find this 

 year mv Queens are almost all much longer than usual 

 in hatching, and this without reference'to the weath- 

 er or strength of the colony. "My bees never would 

 behave like other bees." occurs to me constantly. I 

 have 44 or 45 Queens and not one of them over a "year 

 old. and only five or six even tliat old. With all kinds 

 of Queens it is the same, bought from A, B, and C, 

 raised at home, hatched in nursery, cage or open hive, 

 in big hive or little hive, wlien they get to be a year 

 old or over the\' are gone. But perhaps there is some 

 method in the" madness of my bees this year, for in 

 some cases I can see that the Queens, though so 

 young, had outlived their usefulness. 



AxxA Saunders, Woodville, Miss., Aug. 30th, '75. 



In our opinion, it was not a deticiencj' of 

 food, but because the larvae were too far ad- 

 vanced, that they produced a worker bee in- 

 s^'cad of a Queen. Sometimes a very small 

 cluster of bees will produce Queens that are 

 apparentl}- almost worker bees, and we have 

 had them all the way from a bona fide worker 

 cle.-ir up to a perfect Queen. Some specimens 

 would lay no eggs at all, others a fe^ dozen 

 drone eggs, others still a small cluster of work- 

 er brood, and from this up to three months 

 Queens, or those that lived a year only, while 

 perfect Queens live 3 or 4 years. Since wc 

 have practiced giving the bees nothing but 

 eggs, or at the farthest, larvaj so small as to 

 be .just visible to the eye, we have had no 

 trouble with short lived Queens ; other things, 

 such as plenty of bees, polien, honey, good 

 weather, and the like, of course being equal. 

 We have often seen the very large cells, and 



rather opine that they build them for want of 

 something to do, for they sometimes Iwiild 

 them with nothing at all in, and most fre- 

 (|uently when they have neither brood nor 

 eggs ; just at a time in fact when we may ex- 

 pect fertile workers. 



KATIE GKI.llJI 01 TDONE. 



ViHAT A MISSOUKI.I.ADV CAN IM). 



I'll bees liave not done well this season because 

 there was almost no honey to gather till late in 

 the season. With us the honey season closed on 

 theilth day of Sept. Mrs. Annie Larch extracted liV) 

 lbs. of hoiiey in one day (with Novice's extractor), 

 and says that she can extract 1,500. We comnieuce<l 

 the season with 75 colonies, took from our strongest 

 120 lbs., averaged 80 lbs. per hive and increased about 

 50 )ier cent. Our ])ure Italians again proved them- 

 selves far superior to the hybrids early in the season. 

 During the honey season we had none but pure bees 

 bred from our imported stock, and they are excellent 

 honey gatherers. We have used two story and double 

 width hives with Lr^ngstroth frames, they each pos- 

 sess some advantages; the amount of lioney taken 

 from each was about the same. We take only ex- 

 tracted honey. For box honey the brood chamber 

 should be just larse enough for the brood, and tiiat 

 will ilei^eud altogether tn the Queen, usually from o 

 to 10 Langstroth frames will be required, and some- 

 times as high as 15 frames in the brood cliamber. We 

 have found a great similarity in the Queens of each 

 stock. I once bred from one stock about a dozen 

 Queens, not one of which ever used more than four 

 frames for brood, while those breil from prolific 

 stocks were excellent, not one exceii'iou among the 

 whole, but the drones were from stocks equally good 

 (which is equally important). 



I would give directions for safe wintering, but there 

 is hai'dly anvtliing left for me to add since i'rieud Bo- 

 lin's excellent article on wintering. If bee-keepers 

 will follow his directions their loss will be light if any. 



Should thej- get too hot and uneasy it may be neces- 

 sary to air them at night to prevent "dysentery. Large 

 colonies want plentyof both upper and lower venti- 

 lation, while small stocks neeil but little upward ven- 

 tilation, and nucleuo hives none at at ail except at 

 the bolloni. K. C. L. LakCH. 



P. S. — Always leave entrance of hive open. 



Asfikmd, Boune Co., 22o., ScjJi. ISili. '75. 



The above, by some means, got oat of .sight 

 in our absence when it was received, or it 

 would have appeared at tlw; proper tim-i. 



We presume Mrs. L. had all the cuuibs bro't 

 her with the bees all brushed oif, which would 

 make a great dift'ereuce ; it may be that the ex- 

 tractor also had somethiug to do with such an 

 astonishing daj^'s work, and while wc are 

 about it perhaps we might as. well give the Dr. 

 some credit for the way in which he probably 

 lias his implements arranged for the work. 

 Will he please tell us more about it? We 

 well know that this may make a half I'ilTereiiee 

 or more. If we are going to be obliged to sell 

 our honey at 8 and 10 cents, we want every- 

 thing as handy as can be. We are very glad 

 indeed to receive further evidence that ai)0ut 



